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Sunday, 23 July 2017

News Roundup and snaps from Snowdon

Bestsellers, Translations & Holiday Snaps

This week I was thrilled to see that the first book in my Jefferson Tayte Genealogy Mystery series, IN THE BLOOD, shot to number one in the Audible.com bestseller charts. Wait a minute, did I just say number one? I'm not sure I believe it even now. Thankfully I took a screenshot to remind myself it really was true! Almost a week on and it's still performing very well, currently at number four in the entire Mystery & Thriller category. I'm so pleased to see that JT is being introduced to so many new readers through this entertaining format.

The series has been narrated by Simon Vance who has done a wonderful job with all the many and varied characters I've written about across the six Jefferson Tayte books so far. Winner of multiple awards for his work, Simon really brings the books to life. If you've already read the series, they're a great way to experience it again in a different way, and to those readers who have previously bought the paperback or Kindle editions from Amazon, you can pick them up for a very low price.

Adding to my excitement this week, the Czech language edition of the third book in my Jefferson Tayte series, The Last Queen of England, was released, and I'm told that the translation of book four, The Lost Empress will be released later this year. The reviews for the first two books in the Czech language from the Czech media were very good, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that book three meets with the same approval. My Czech publisher Mystery Press posted these photos on their Facebook page to mark the launch. They filled my head with notions of taking a book to a meadow, lying down and reading all day, but then I reminded myself that I have a word count target to reach and a seventh Jefferson Tayte book to write. I recall writing The Last Queen of England with great fondness, not least because it's such a pacy book that it practically wrote itself. At least, I recall that my writing seemed to flow with equal pace and fervour.

The week before these exciting events took place, I went hiking in Snowdonia with my best friend from school days, Andy Brooks. It's something we've started doing every year, camping for a few nights and going for long hikes. Last year was South Wales and Pen-y-Fan, so this year we thought we'd hike Snowdon in North Wales. As usual we lugged around 20kg of camera gear (and water of course) up the mountain with us, tackling the peak twice in three days by various ascents and descents. Here are some of my favourite snaps from the trip. Just click on any image to see the larger versions. I hope you enjoy them.

It was cloudy and wet on our first hike up Snowdon. As we neared the bottomagain, a splash of sunlight shone through, giving me this moody shot.

The sun came out for our second hike, which made it hot going,but at least we could see the view, and get some photos at last.

Climbing higher.

This was taken near the top of Snowdon.

A welsh lamb and mint pasty later and we were ready to descend. This is the startof the trail down to the pub for a well-deserved pint, via the ridge you can see.

About Me

Steve Robinson drew upon his own family history for inspiration when he imagined the life and quest of his genealogist-hero, Jefferson Tayte. The talented London-based crime writer, who was first published at age 16, always wondered about his own maternal grandfather--"He was an American GI billeted in England during the Second World War," Robinson says. "A few years after the war ended he went back to America, leaving a young family behind and, to my knowledge, no further contact was made. I traced him to Los Angeles through his 1943 enlistment record and discovered that he was born in Arkansas . . ." Robinson cites crime writing and genealogy as ardent hobbies--a passion that is readily apparent in his work. He can be contacted via his website www.steve-robinson.me or his blog at www.ancestryauthor.blogspot.com.